CR trustees coming to Fort Bragg

The Redwoods Community College District board of trustees will meet at Fort Bragg Town Hall Monday, Feb. 17, from noon to 2 p.m. to hear public comment on recommendations by Kathy Smith, College of the Redwoods president, to suspend operations at the Fort Bragg campus by next fall.

Two trustees expressed concern about the potential for disruption at the public hearing after Jonathan Lehan, a Fort Bragg resident and retired judge, refused to yield the floor at the Feb. 4 meeting in Eureka. Speakers are limited by board policy to three minutes.

"I think we need to have security there," Thomas Ross, Area 2 trustee, said. "If they get somebody who defies us and the crowd starts participating, I'm out of there. We need to make it clear that it's three minutes per topic and if they're not going to be respectful, I don't want to be there. I barely want to go to the meeting at all, as I'm anticipating a lot of passion down there."

Ross's area includes the Fortuna Unified School District.

Bruce Emad, Area 5 trustee, echoed Ross's anxiety.

"That gentleman was belligerent," he said, referring to Lehan. "He was threatening me as a trustee with a lawsuit every other word. He was ignoring the board chair."

In his comments to the board, Lehan reviewed the history of College of the Redwoods with respect to the Mendocino Coast area, including a threatened lawsuit by area residents prior to the campus being built at Fort Bragg.

"Is it going to take a lawsuit to keep the doors open?" Lehan asked.

Emad said he had been to a meeting on the Mendocino Coast with a hostile crowd.

"I have been to a public hearing down there with a previous superintendent which was very unpleasant," he said. "Staff were physically threatened. I was very uncomfortable at that meeting. I will follow exactly what Trustee Ross described if I feel that is going on."

Emad represents the portions of Humboldt County within South Bay Union, Cutten, Freshwater, Kneeland, Garfield and Jacoby Creek school districts, all to the immediate southeast of Eureka.

Ross restated his desire to have security at the public hearing in Fort Bragg. He said he wanted to make clear to Mendocino Coast residents that the time to speak will be limited to three minutes and the time limit will be strictly followed.

"If they're not respectful, I'm gonna leave," he said.

Guidance from Rice

Barbara Rice, Mendocino Coast area trustee, has urged residents to restrain their emotions when addressing the trustees during the Feb. 17 meeting.

"It is extremely important that all community members behave respectfully and with civility," Rice wrote on the local listserv.

"One "bad apple' truly will spoil the message. It will be all some of the board members will hear and take away with them. A few members of the board have already stated that they will leave the room if they feel threatened," Rice wrote.

"Our behavior will also be a reflection of our community to Mendocino College. They are under the same constraints as College of the Redwoods is to provide only transfer education, vocational training and basic skills courses. We don't want Mendocino College to feel our community wants unrealistic things that they will not be able to deliver in these economic times," Rice concluded.

Other administration moves

Smith recommended the suspension of operations at College of the Redwoods, Mendocino Coast, effective in the fall.

Three of the four remaining full-time faculty were notified by Smith in a Jan. 17 telephone call that they will be transferred to other sites in the district. The Fine Wood Working program will remain intact.

Smith's actions touched off an emotional firestorm around the campus and on the coast.

No action will be taken at the Feb. 17 public hearing. Smith's recommendations will likely be voted on at the trustees' March 4 meeting in Eureka.

The archived video of the Feb. 4 trustees meeting can be found at http://redwoods.edu/_media/district/02-04-14.asp.